The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-08
WHEN THE WIRES ERR.
The Complications Caused by Tele-
graphic Blunders.
Ffona az Melp York Star.

BTbpulC biuuQer5.
From the Neu York Star.
Telegraphy would have undoubtedly
found a congenial environment in Sparta.
Brevity in words was quality that the
Spartan was trained to from his cradle.
When they lapsed into speech they were able
to get their thoughts into the smallest
amount of verbal vestlTe that would cover
them. When verbose moderns try to do the
same portion of the idea is generally left
uncovered. When the idea has been
kneaded again and again to get it into a COM
modious little circumference that will fall
within the tariff gauge the sender win
often fail to put in some important point, so
that the receiver is thrown into panic by
his throes at Interpretation The operator,
too, can make mistake that completely
muddleS the whole thing up. Sometimes
these mistakes are amusing, sometimes they
are affecting sometimes they are costly
firm in New York which dealt in hats,
caps and furs received from small city in
the West, toward the middle of August, the
following telegram; Send at once 1000
caps like those ordered before" The firm
rustled around lively to fill the order. The
cap was light summer one, and they had
very few in stock, as the season was near its
end So all the female operators were put
to work; scissors waxed hot with cutting
and clipping and shipping; the sewing ma
chine clicked feverishly, and at last big
box, with the 900 caps, was duly for
warded to the address of the occidental
dealer Poor mani he had ordered ten
caps, and the operator had centupled the
amount by adding two ''airy nothings,n so
that he was furnished with enough to cover
the heads of every being in the place
and one or two generations yet unborn.
He resented this stress of caps. The
New York firm claimed they had filed
the order and demanded payment The
dealer refused it. The caps were sold at
auction for a trifiing sum, and suit was
brought against the telegraph company for
the difference 10 the market value of the
caps and the value received The whole
suit depended on the telegram written by
the shopkeeper If he had inscribed 10
and the operator had added two zeroS, the
compeny had a sorry outlook. The clever
young lawyer to whom the company en-
trusted the case, secured this original tele-
gram as his first move. and while the plain
tiffs begged adjournment until they could
hunt up the all-important telegram the
telegraph company insisted on having the
case come on. The cap firm acquired an
unpleasant lesson which made them very
wary in the matter of kilograms forever
after.
some time ago telegram was sent TO a man
from his brother in New York, bidding him
come to certain station. This brother a
little while before had run nail into him at
Asbury Park, and the whole family imme-
diately conceived that he had had another
driven in, and was probably in the horrible
contortions of lockjaw. The telegram was
dated from the wrong station and for hours
the family were wildly searching for the be-
nailed brother 1t was day of torture till
in the evening the gentleman showed up
with no nails, except what nature had in
serted in his extremities why the deuce
didn't you come this morning to
- street, I had two passes to the bench
show, and wanted you to see the prettiest
hver-colored bitch in the worldP' Lockjaw
and death dwindling down to prize pupil
GEOGRAPHICALLY, sounds that represent
different things are often identical, and
some Judgment is required on the receiving
operators part in interpreting from the con-
text A New York society woman, fatigued
with the wear and tear of an incessant
whirl of social duties, went to Saratoga to
take the waters as means of rallying
They failed to do the work properly, and
she wrote her family physician for advice.
She received telegram Take a dozen
pills" Twas heroic treatment, especially
when the cathartic globules followed a
course of Hathorn Spring water She took
the pills, and almost took her departure
from things terrestrial as a consequence
The doctor had telegraphed take dose of
pills" "Dose of and ''dozonn are the same
Geographically.
By mistake of this kind, the Associated
Press at the time when Samuel Tilden had
been counted out of the Presidency. were
galvanized by report wired in the midst
of the intense excitement that James A.
Garfield would play game of base ball in
the House Instead of ''play game of
base ball" Garfield was to "accept the gage
of battle" The similarity of Geographic
symbols was again the cause of the mistake.
Frequently telegraphic mistakes in mes
sages have been the cause Of death by the
shock communicated tossthe receivers Of the
message. The humor OF Geographic errors
is not apparent in such cases.
One of the funniest things of the kind oc-
CURED last winter. The correspondent of
the New York Herald teIegraphed long
account of the ice carnival at Minneapolis.
"Ice kingn is Geographically the same as
"Yo king" The Herald came out with
big head lines about the "Yo King" and
went through a column seriously expatia-
ting on this mystic royalty. Every tele-
graph man in the country saw how the mis-
take was made, and there was q general
laugh at the Herdtd's expense. 'Yo king"
seemed a carnival creature, and probably
ranked in the mind of the man who re-
ceived the message in the category with
vikings
Having the message insured by repeating
it does not always secure certainty Once,
when the matter was as simple as the mono
syllable Eyes" and repetition was ordered
to make certainty doubly sure, the message
was received as "no."
A lawyer telegraphed TO legal friend in
Boston for some important papers In case
he was conducting. The Boston man was
laid up with cold and told his clerk to
send this news to the inquiring lawyer as an
excuse for not sending the papers How
ever it was, it was flashed over the wires
that the Boston man was dead. The
greatest excitement was created by his sud-
den taking off, and the family rushed
wildly ON to Boston TO take care of the re-
mains. The corpse was found actively EN-
ploying handkerchief. His cold was not
the cold of death, and he soon recovered.
The operator takes down the words or
sounds that are sent, and bis duty is to get
those correctly and not TO have any views
about style or sentiment ON the sender's
part. Messages sent in cipher, or where
some word has been conventionally agreed
to as signifying company's long name by
a short one, may look oddly enough when
compounded with other words. This ac-
counts in some measure for the mistakes
that may occur. So il a message comes
over the wire that "Lil is on the top ladder
and Kips shoulder is thoughtfuln he has not
got TO wonder at Lis exaltation nor at the
ct - IA